Could Local Prep Star Be an Early Round Draft Option For Pirates?

Left-handed pitcher Brendan McKay from Blackhawk HS in Beaver Falls, PA has made quite a name for himself recently in the draft circuit, and he’s getting famous for what he hasn’t done. McKay hasn’t allowed a run in quite awhile, compiling a 69 inning scoreless streak, which covers this entire season and part of last year. He’s striking out batters at an incredible rate this season, with 101 in 45 innings.

He’s grabbing local headlines, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Pittsburgh Pirates will go out of their way to draft him next week. He could be an option for them if he’s the best player available when the Pirates make one of their selections on the second day of the draft, which starts with round three next Friday.

Brendan McKay (Photo credit: David Hague)

You won’t get player specific quotes from Pirates GM Neal Huntington, who obviously doesn’t want to tip his hand before the draft, but he did recently speak to the media about drafting local players in general and how the Pirates go about it.

“We cover them the way we cover everybody else. We’re certainly aware of guys that are local. Some organizations seem to go out of their way to make sure they draft a local guy. We want to make sure we understand where they could go and what they can become.”

As Huntington points out, being local makes for a nice story, although passing up someone who you think better just to take that local player, could be a big mistake.

“We’d love to have another Neil Walker come through the system and have another local guy make it big and become a big-time player. That’d be fantastic. But we’d hate to take a guy that we like because he’s local over a guy that we liked a little bit more because he’s not local and have that guy go on to be a pretty good player.”

Baseball America recently ranked McKay as the 163rd best player in this draft class. That puts him at the back-end of the fifth round and buzz around him recently has said that he will likely go in the 4/5 range.

McKay has some qualities you really like in a pitcher. Being left-handed at PNC certainly has its advantages and he throws a lot of strikes using a three-pitch mix. His curve is above average already and his change-up shows signs of being at least average in the future. There are also some things that keep him from being a higher ranked player in this draft class. McKay doesn’t throw especially hard, sitting high 80’s and touching 91 MPH. At 6’1″, 220 pounds, he has a good frame already, but scouts don’t see much projection with him.

No matter how many shutout innings you throw as a high school pitcher, you have to take in the quality of opposition into account and judge the player based on his future potential.

So while Brendan McKay could certainly be an option for the Pirates next Friday, Neal Huntington’s comments tell you that they won’t just take him early because he is local. You’d like a feel good story to emerge from the draft, but you also want to trust the scouts in your system and make sure that you’re getting as much talent as possible out of the draft.

McKay Isn’t the Only Local Talent

While McKay’s streak is obviously and deservedly grabbing all the headlines around town, he is overshadowing another local player that could be just as good. Norwin HS in North Huntingdon, PA has a power-hitting shortstop with a quick bat from the left side. J.J. Matijevic will be a corner infielder in the pros, but he projects to have a bat that will play anywhere. Matijevic has turned himself into a “physical specimen” according to his recent Baseball America scouting report. At 6’0″, 211 pounds, he should be able to translate that size into power and hit for average in the pros.

This season, he hit .607 with ten homers in 56 at-bats. He could have a chance to play third base in the pros, though his arm is listed as average, so that may eventually push him to first base. Just like with the southpaw McKay being helped by PNC Park, it also looks good for a power-hitting lefty.

Matijevic was ranked just 22 spots behind McKay in Baseball America’s top 200 draft prospects list. He was actually ranked higher by some sources coming into the year. While some scouts differ on where he could go in the draft, Matijevic will likely need to be taken on the second day for him to sign. Some team could make room in their draft bonus pool to take him after the tenth round and offer him above-slot money, but with a strong commitment to the University of Arizona, he will be harder to sign the further he drops.

There are a lot of scouts looking at him plus if he goes south to college and performs for a few years his stock would go way up . I have not seen him pitch but a guy I work with has seen most of his games . His opinion , very very good .

Erik Johnson

McKay is a Louisville commit

LloydBeFree

LLOYD has seen both guys play up close. Both are really good. Both may need college to raise their draft stock.

McKay is at minimum a lefty relief prospect and JJ is a 2B prospect in LLOYD’s eyeball.

Thanks,

LLOYD

glassers

I like the eyeball test Lloyd , big believer in that !!!

John Dreker

For a little bit, the article said that he sitting high 90’s, touching 91 MPH. It was obviously sitting high 80’s, touching 91 MPH. Sorry for the confusion

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.